


thought that i’d feel better

by gay_bird



Category: The Cases of Captain Stein and Notary Barbaric - Juraj Červenák
Genre: And Need To Vent, Belly Rubs, But Also Like...Touch Aversive??, Families of Choice, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jaros Doesn’t Understand How Affection Works, Literally No One Cares About This Fandom, Platonic Relationships, Stein Is a Good Dad, Stomach Ache, Touch-Starved, Trust Issues, but i have EMOTIONs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 09:46:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20469005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gay_bird/pseuds/gay_bird
Summary: Sergeant Bohdan Jaros has an iron stomach. That is one of the first three things they promise about him every time he gets sent to a new assignment. (The other two being a bigass sword and a talent at torture.) Unless, he maybe doesn’t and Stein has to deal with a semi-feral boy with a stomachache. Its a learning curve.





	thought that i’d feel better

Bohdan Jaros had an iron stomach. It was one of the first flattering things people used to say about him, usually in the connotation of, “Oh don’t worry, he’ll definitely torture that guy. No problem.” It was still...nice to have something positive connotated with his person and Jaros learned to appreciate it, even to laugh at captain’s jokes about certain notaries, not gifted with this strength, having to use a perfumed handkerchief anytime they had to experience the less pleasantly smelling parts of life.

The whole thing, however, was a lie. Well, not completely. He almost never retched, not when subjecting people to the most horrific types of torture, not when dealing with days, even weeks, old corpses, not when searching through filth infested homes of the poorest. His stomach stayed still and loyal through many situations that reintroduced many men, of far more experiences and far higher ranks, to their lunches. The thing was, that no matter how hard throw up it was, it took almost nothing to get the sergeant's stomach upset. It was stupid, really. He had spent the past three years on the battlefield, eating scraps he stole from the rats and the enemy and yet the second he ate too fast, too much or anything his stomach decided to dislike that week, he would spent the next couple of hours in pain comparable to being shot. Even though, in his experience, being shot was a little bit better, than wherever was happening to his insides at that moment. As he entered the room he and the captain had rented, his whatever was causing him pain decided to go from bearable to absolutely not. The low, threatening feeling of heaviness accompanied by a dull ache suddenly shifted in a spike of pain to a churning sensation, accompanied by eye-watering cramps. He gasped in pain, wrapping his arms around his abdomen.

“Is something wrong, sergeant?”

Which was a mistake. The boy quickly straightened with a wince and turned to fully face his superior officer, putting down his numerous guns on a rickety table, the only piece of furniture in the room apart from two beds. 

“No, sir. Everything is alright,” he lied through closed teeth.

Stein frowned, his bushy eyebrows meeting in the middle of his forehead, “Are you certain? You have been suspiciously quiet since the dinner, even for your standards, and you seem just awfully careful about the way you move. You know that you can tell me if anything’s wrong, sergeant, right?”

“Everything is okay, re,” Jaros stopped to draw a deep breath as another cramp tore through his insides. It didn’t help and he involuntarily bended around his stomach, letting out a soft whine. He was certain that at that point there had to be some real damage done to his stomach. Something tearing or burning, but definitely not just indigestion. Stein looked at him with one eyebrow raised, but some concern in his eyes. (That’s at least what Jaros thought, he had never been good at understanding other people’s emotions.) 

“It's just an upset stomach, sir. The dinner didn’t sit right with me, but nothing serious,” Jaros straightened back up, still cradling his tender midsection with his left hand.

“Jaros,” the younger man looked up at the captain with a nervous expectation, “we talked about this.” Stein ran his hand over his face and begun taking of his boots as he spoke, “I will never be angry, or upset, or disappointed, if you are unwell in any way. But every time you try to hide it from me, I come closer to physically smacking some sense into you.” 

He looked up into the sergeant’s eyes, taking of his coat,” I need you, Bohdan. And I need you to be at your best, which you cannot be, if you don’t let me, or others, help you with what’s wrong. Understood?”

Jarod nodded. Stein relaxed slightly and finished the process of undressing by taking of his belt. Then, only in his pants and shirtsleeves, he plopped down onto sergeant’s bed. 

“Good. Now take off your clothes.”

All remains of ease evaporated from the boy.   
“Sir?”, he asked.

“Don’t stare at me like that, sergeant. Do you intend to sleep in your coat? Or boots? No? Then take them off. And the belt. That can’t be doing any good to your stomach.”

Jaros just managed a small “oh”, before starting with the tasks. He was grateful for the orders. Orders made things simpler. And while not actually easing the pain, having something to focus on, took away and edge of the discomfort. And so the boy opened all the clasps, untied all the fastenings, folded all the seams and placed it all neatly on a pile next to the chaotic mess of captain’s clothes. The second he did what was asked of him, Jaros found himself in front of another problem. More specifically, in front of the captain sitting on his bed.

“Well,” raised Stein an eyebrow,” what are you waiting for? Lie down.”

“Sir, I...you,” Jaros squirmed in his place, partially from nervosity, partially from the growing discomfort in his stomach. 

“Jaros, I’m not going to hurt you, nor embarrass you. Just,” the older man seemed at a loss for words, “just lie down here and let me help. And don’t make me make that an order.”

Jaros drew a shaky breath, still considering if it was too late to run away to the night. But then, as his stomach decided to once again remind him of its existence by a sharp spike of pain and a unpleasant, sour feeling somewhere in his insides, he gave up and sat down next to captain. Stein shuffled to the side, to make more room for the boy, and Jaros, if unhappily, lied down on the rickety bed and flat pillow. The only saving grace of the in were the clean sheets. Behind him, Stein shifted once more, before rolling up Jaros’ shirt to reveal his abdomen and placing one of his hands right on top of it. Jaros froze. His entire body became rigid and breathing even more strained at the mere notion of someone touching him. On the bare skin. No matter how painful his stomach was, that was worse. Stein grumbled, as he felt the boy tense under his touch.

“Relax, sergeant. I’m not going to hurt you, just help you with whatever’s going on in there,” he poked the boy’s ever so slightly bloated stomach, which responded with a groan and a flash of pain. Jaros grit his teeth, but forced himself into deeper breaths and relaxing at least some of the tension. Stein have him a little hum of approval, before beginning to work on the lean flesh of his stomach. He ran his large, calloused palms over Jaros’ abdomen, alternating between light circular motion and applying actual pressure into some parts. The younger soldier, for his part, stared at the ceiling and willed himself to think about anything else than the feeling of someone’s skin on his own. The wooden ceiling proved to be overwhelmingly uninteresting, even with the changing shadows caused by the flickering candlelight. After a while, he decided to focus on the smells instead. Those were one of the bearable parts of his current predicament. Because of his immediate nearness, the only thing Jaros could really smell was the captain. He always smelled like a mixture of gunpowder, human and horse sweat and beer, which could be said about almost any military man in the whole realm, but there was something different about his odor. There was something else, that Jaros could never quite discern but could always recognize. It had become surprisingly pleasant, to have a scent he could trust, that always meant someone was there to help. Time passed, as Jaros stared at the ceiling and tried to identify all the smell on his superior officer, and without him realizing, he had actually began to relax.

In longer run, the procedure was quite effective, he realized as he took note of how limp, almost sleepy he had become. The warmth was pleasant, the motions seemed to actually ease away some of the pain and there was something pleasantly familiar about the hardness of the palms on his stomach. For a brief moment, he considered the workings of captain’s actions. Maybe, the movement allowed for better distribution of substance, or it increased the natural movements of the stomach walls, he’d need to find out more in the future. But for now, he was content with lying with his eyes half-closed and memorizing the patterns of Stein’s touch, for future use. He could use it on himself in the future, to avoid situations like this, even though captain touching him wasn’t as bad, as he had expected. After all, it wasn’t a sign of affection, just a necessity. A medical procedure of sorts, he reasoned as he melted deeper into Stein’s touch. His stomach still ached, a dull, uncomfortable, sour feeling and there was still work to be done the next day. They still were in a shabby inn, the realm was still at the edge of a war they had no chance of winning and Jaros still carried an enormous sin on his back. None of that could be changed. But maybe, just for that night, he could let himself be helped for once and go to sleep, being lulled by the whispering of the rain against the roof and flashes of candlelight reflecting on the cross, hanging from his captain’s neck. Maybe, just maybe, he could let go for one night. Stein was there, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my work! A couple of notes for reference.
> 
> 1\. The characters are from a Czech/Slovak book series called The Cases of Captain Stein and Notary Barbaric, which are detective novels set in the late 16th/early 17th century Hungarian and Czech Kingdom and it’s pretty great. Sadly, it only exists in Czech and Slovak but a television show based on one of the books should come out in the next two years and I really hope it’ll bring more focus onto this wonderful series.  
2\. The characters appearing specifically in this story are captain Joachim Stein- a fourty-something German protagonist of the series, and his right-hand-man, a Czech soldier Bohdan Jaros, who is somewhere in his late teens/ early twenties and has a background of implied childhood abuse and mental illness (there is a whole arc about mental illnesses and ableism in the books and it’s so good, I’m weeping). Over the course of like the first two books, Stein basically adopts him and the rest of the series is just them learning how to show/accept care and also solving crimes and killing dudes. It’s wholesome, I swear.  
3\. I have several other works about these books as WIP’s and I’ll decide on whether one not to finish and post them, based on the perception of this one, so please leave your thoughts and feelings in the comments.
> 
> Once again, thank you so much for reading and have a lovely day!!


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